We propose a 1992 survey of more than 9000 American men and women who were first interviewed as seniors in high school in 1957 and have subsequently been followed up in 1957, 1964, and 1975; they will be about 53 years old when they are interviewed. At the same time, we will interview a randomly selected sibling of each respondent, and we will obtain a waiver that will permit us to link our survey records to information from the Social Security system and the National Death Index. The WLS data will be a valuable public general resource for studies of aging and the life course, inter-generational transfers and relationships, family functioning, social stratification' physical and mental well-being, and mortality. The study has 5 specific goals: (1) To extend models of occupation and earnings and to elaborate the roles of aspirations in adolescence and at mid-life, of previous achievements, and of familial responsibilities in current economic and social standing, subjective well-being, mental and physical health, disability, and wealth; (2) To identify and measure local effects on opportunity, that is, specific characteristics of a person, firm, or economic sector that directly influence the chances of obtaining a job or a limited range of jobs; (3) To extend and elaborate models of sibling resemblance that will elucidate influences of the family of origin on the life course; (4) To investigate self-assessments of well-being in the context of aspirations, accomplishments, and social relationships with significant others; (5) To measure social and economic exchange relationships with parents, children, and siblings and assess the consequences of those relationships for well-being.
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